Before joining A&M, Mr. Leifer was Vice President Technical Services with NYLEX Benefits, an independent subsidiary of New York Life Insurance Company. AT NYLEX Benefits, he was responsible for developing and structuring non-qualified executive benefit plans. He worked with clients and their professional advisers to ensure that plans met clients’ and their executives’ objectives and that proposed plans would comply with statutory and regulatory requirements. He also worked with clients to amend previously implemented plans to satisfy evolving client needs and to meet statutory and regulatory developments.

Prior to NYLEX Benefits, Mr. Leifer was a Partner at Ernst & Young, where he was responsible for providing a broad array of tax services to a range of multinational clients. He assisted clients in developing strategies to minimize their corporate tax burden in the U.S. and worldwide, and worked with clients to successfully complete significant merger and acquisition transactions and joint venture arrangements. He was also a leader in the firm’s expansion into Eastern Europe.

At Ernst & Young, Mr. Leifer served as Associate Director and Director of the firm’s Office of International Tax Services, where he coordinated worldwide tax services for clients, and also was Director of Tax for the firm’s New York Office and New York Region, where he was responsible for all tax services rendered to clients.

Mr. Leifer earned a juris doctor from Columbia Law School and a master’s degree in taxation from New York University School of Law. He earned a bachelor’s degree in public accounting from The City University of New York. Mr. Leifer is a member of the bar in New York and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in New York and Connecticut.

Mr. Leifer is active in several professional associations, including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), where has chaired the Tax Policy and Simplification Committee, the Task Force on Taxation of Electronic Commerce and the Task Force on the Taxation of Split-Dollar Life Insurance. He currently is a member of the New York State Society of CPAs’ Professional Ethics Committee.

Last year, many early-stage companies significantly reduced payroll taxes thanks to a new federal tax credit including many of our start-ups in the tech industry. The Qualified Small Business (QSB) R&D Tax Credit, passed into law in 2015, allows qualified small businesses to offset OASDI (i.e. social security) taxes with R&D tax credits originally claimed on federal income tax returns. The 2018 calendar year presents yet another opportunity for companies to realize these savings. How are these credits achieved?